Thread: Pocket change Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.
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Posted by basso (# 4228) on
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Does anyone else spare a glance at the change in their pockets, or in that pile on the dresser?
People on the "I remember..." thread in Heaven commented on their parents saving old shillings and other coinage.
Of course many of those older coins don't circulate anymore. Over here, we do still get some older coins in circulation. Working at BurgerPalace, I get to handle a lot of change, and occasionally I stumble across an older one. I occasionally see a Buffalo nickel go through my drawer. Those haven't been minted since 1938.
One morning I opened my till to find that all of the pennies (I checked) were the wheat-back design, not made since 1958.
Maybe my favorite was a young woman who had an apologetic air as she handed me a 50-cent piece. It was a Kennedy half - the current design - and I knew just from the appearance what she'd found. It was a silver half, minted only in 1964 before all the silver was taken out of the coinage and instantly disappeared from circulation. (She'd gotten that one from a casino in Reno.)
Who else keeps an eye cocked for interesting finds like that? I doubt it's just me...
Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on
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I do. I mainly get Canadian coinage (a bit rare in CA or MO) and the occasional wheatback penny. I have a Revolutionary War dollar, but didn't get that one in pocket change!
Posted by Kittyville (# 16106) on
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When I was in Salt Lake City, I got a load of one dollar coins as change from a ticket machine for the light rail. I didn't get a chance to recycle them into light rail fares, and thought I might have a bit of a challenge spending them elsewhere, so I ended up giving them to a colleague in New York, who'd never seen one before.
Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on
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On my last visit to the Isle of Man I was very excited to get a Manx £1 note in my change, and I have been carrying it round ever since.
No, I don't have a life ...
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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quote:
Originally posted by basso:
Does anyone else spare a glance at the change in their pockets, or in that pile on the dresser?
Yes, but modern coinage seems very up to date, with older coins weeded out quite quickly. They don't hang around half as long as they used to. In my current pocketful of change there's a 20p piece from 1982, but almost everything else is from within the past 10 years.
What I don't always spot in time are foreign coins. A lot of euros turn up in change, with at least one small silver or copper coin that looks like a 5p piece or penny until you look more closely and find it's from overseas. It's an understandable mistake, but there can't have been any mistake about the Danish krone with a hole in the middle that popped up in a charity collection.
I miss the old European coinages: euros are all much of a muchness really. When travelling abroad, the currency used to give a distinct sense of being in a foreign country, and was interesting to look at.
[ 06. February 2016, 08:17: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posted by Bibaculus (# 18528) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
I miss the old European coinages: euros are all much of a muchness really. When travelling abroad, the currency used to give a distinct sense of being in a foreign country, and was interesting to look at.
Me too. Years ago I left my briefcase on a London Underground train. I went to the Lost property Office, who had it. To identify me as the owner, I was asked what was in it. One of the things was ' alot of money' No, I didn't think there was any money in there. 'A very high denomination banknote', the lady tried. No, I couldn't think of what that could be. It turned out it as an Italian 1,000 lira note (worth about 40 pence) I was using as a bookmark in a book!
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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I think of all decimal coinage as 'new money' and therefore of no historical interest. Not like the real stuff, where you might find stuff all the way back to Bun pennies (minted 1860 ff).
Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on
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In my wallet there are coins of at least six countries. It's a complete mess.
Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on
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Me! I love old coins! You never know what will show up in your change sometimes!
My next door neighbors when I grew up were natives of England. The sisters would go to England once a year, where I was sure they visited the queen during their stay. (I was about ten, then.) One time they brought me a souvenir, a Victorian penny dated 1897. I keep it with all my other coins.
One day when I was working at the hardware store, I found several indian head pennies. Looking at my collection, I only see three right now. Could I have given some to friends or family? Oh well, I bought those pennies, figuring someone had raided their grandfather's coin collection to buy some trivial thing. They are in very good condition, and the oldest is dated 1893.
My oldest Lincoln head cent is dated 1918, and I have four steel pennies from 1943.
This is fun! I'll tell you all more later, but don't want to hog the thread!
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on
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I collected coins when young. And bought proof sets. I have a large collection of things I inherited by default after various people died. Some dubloons from 16th century, a few Roman coins, all of the Canadian small cents, dimes and nickels, most of the quarters. Some proof sets.
I went shopping for a few things this morning, some plumbing parts, and another store for automotive parts. The plumbing store doesn't accept cash any more. It's quite common in Canada now to not pay for anything with cash. Even in remote areas, the government has provided internet which is how cards are validated (sometimes by satellite) and debit and credit cards are the rule. I see the end of coins and money on the horizon. When travelling I have seen that cash is much more common in the USA and many places in Europe. The latest thing is pay by smart phone. Makes me a little sad.
Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on
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Whoa. Everybody would be screwed for purchasing things if a solar burst took out electronics for a while. Barter, anybody? It's like getting rid of all the heirloom food when new plant infections that could prey on designed plants are a possibility. Shrinking all your options into one choice is just crazy.
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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It would wipe out people asking for change on the streets, and giving children small amounts to buy sweets.
If you try to pay with a card here for small purchases, most places seem to refuse to take it for less than £5 as they have to pay bank fees on it. I don't see Britain going cashless any time soon.
[ 06. February 2016, 17:56: Message edited by: Ariel ]
Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
It would wipe out people asking for change on the streets.
They'll all have card readers on their cell phones. Have you ever noticed that people begging for money always seem to have enough for (a) cigarettes and (b) cell phones?
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
If you try to pay with a card here for small purchases, most places seem to refuse to take it for less than £5 as they have to pay bank fees on it. I don't see Britain going cashless any time soon.
Oh I think it will, along with everyone else. Businesses and card service companies (they are not all banks) have to figure out their rules of working together. We're more regulated for financial services in Canada, but it is merely a matter of time. First, it is forbidden to charge more for using a card than cash. Second, the percent the card service wants to provide the transfer service has to be subject to competition. Third, the business has to bargain with the card service company level of fees. It is common for the initial fee quote to be >2%, but this can drop to less than 1%. The banks charge for deposits, often per item, i.e., each cheque, and additional amounts for cash, such that the cards are more economic for business. cash and cheques are the most expensive way to deposit for me. In my business we are considering refusing to accept cheques because they are more expensive - almost no-one pays via cash when the bill is more than $50, and about 3× this is our typical amount. Our corporate payers do it by electronic transfer now, often requiring vendors to do this.
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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Well, I just hope it doesn't happen here.
Posted by anoesis (# 14189) on
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NP's description of the situation in Canada is a pretty decent summation of the situation in NZ also. Dealing with the bank in any manner other than over the internet will attract fees (quite steep ones). Attempting to buy a packet of chewing gum with a bank card would probably earn you a dirty look here, but buying a sandwich with one would be completely acceptable. I barely used cash for years and years - then I had a kid start school. Every other week they need a dollar for this, two dollars for that, six dollars for the other thing.
Posted by basso (# 4228) on
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quote:
Originally posted by jedijudy:
My oldest Lincoln head cent is dated 1918, and I have four steel pennies from 1943.
I got a silver wartime nickel a while back. They have a very large mint mark, so they're easy to spot if you're keeping your eyes peeled.
Nickel was such a critical wartime material that for a few years they added silver to the 5-cent piece to conserve a more important metal.
Posted by Nenya (# 16427) on
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Here in the UK they minted a commemorative set of 50 pence pieces for the 2012 Olympics. We took them out of our pocket change as Nenlet2 was collecting them and I suspect a lot of people were doing the same as I never see them now.
Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on
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Mr Image's parents owned a laundry when he was a wee lad and because he had small hands his father would let him clean out the lint trap. He has a very interesting collection of old coins from all across the world. The best is an old USA $5.00 gold coin that surprisingly no one ever returned to claim. He also has a Roman coin which is not worth very much as it turned out to be fairly common.
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on
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We still lived in Scotland when the £1 coin was introduced in the UK, but the Scottish banks still issued their own £1 notes. Nobody liked the coins, so there were very few in circulation.
When we went to D's old watering-hole in Colchester, the landlord would say, "Oh look, here's Piglet and D. - they'll have proper money".
We still get a little bit excited whenever we get a Scottish fiver ... ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posted by BroJames (# 9636) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I think of all decimal coinage as 'new money' and therefore of no historical interest. Not like the real stuff, where you might find stuff all the way back to Bun pennies (minted 1860 ff).
Me too. Not only is decimal 'new money', but they changed the size of the 5p, 10p and 50p coins in the 1990s, so there's no chance now of anything turning up in current use that has been minted before 1971. Until that change, there was still a faint chance of a much older shilling or florin turning up in your pocket.
Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on
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Feels like toy money out of a toy shop till, doesn't it? Doesn't have the proper money heft in the hand.
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on
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Part of my job when we lived in Belfast was counting and banking the takings from the college refectory, and the "new", squitty little 5p pieces were a total pain in the ear.
On the other hand, I also had to take the cash from the photocopier cash box round to the bank, and on busy days that could be several hundred pounds in £1 coins.
Hello backache, my old friend ... ![[Help]](graemlins/help.gif)
Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on
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When you live in a different country, you usually have a lot of coins in your wallet. That's because when you don't know the money very well, it's easier to give a note to the person at the counter and see whatever coins you get back.
When I lived in Swansea 20 years ago, this was in a house that was normally rented to overseas students. The people who were in the house before me apparently had this problem too, because I found a drawer with around £30 in 1 and 2p coins!
Every two days or so, I would buy a half wholemeal bread from the baker's next door. They cost 41p in those days. So I made piles of exactly 41p of these coins, and used them for this purpose. The bakery people stopped counting them after the second time I did this, happy to receive some small change.
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on
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quote:
Originally posted by BroJames:
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
I think of all decimal coinage as 'new money' and therefore of no historical interest. Not like the real stuff, where you might find stuff all the way back to Bun pennies (minted 1860 ff).
Me too. Not only is decimal 'new money', but they changed the size of the 5p, 10p and 50p coins in the 1990s, so there's no chance now of anything turning up in current use that has been minted before 1971. Until that change, there was still a faint chance of a much older shilling or florin turning up in your pocket.
There is still one interesting point, though. If you have old 1p and 2p coins in your purse, from the years just after decimalisation, they will say "New Pence" on them. At some point the word "New" vanished.
Anyway, we still have coins which are older than Euros ...
Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on
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quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
I made piles of exactly 41p of these coins, and used them for this purpose. The bakery people stopped counting them after the second time I did this, happy to receive some small change.
Some time ago there was a shortage of pennies here in the US. I don't know if it was because people were hoarding them or what. But the local Burger King offered to give a free order of fries to anyone who would bring in a roll of pennies.
I had accumulated enough pennies to pay for a Whopper, fries and drink, and brought them all in. It was like Luke 15:9 -- the manager actually called all the clerks together and had them marvel at the good fortune I had caused to befall upon the store. Not only did I get the fries for free, but the whole meal!
Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on
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I liked the old halfpenny, and still have a few. My only foray into crime when I was a bit younger, and we discovered that the steel knock-outs from electrical boxes worked in the halfpenny stamp machines.
Visiting South Africa recently, it seemed that all cash transactions were in paper money, loose change always going to car park watchers and the myriad other people who expected, and were satisfied with what appeared to us to be infinitesimal tips.
I had a cherished collection of Scottish shillings, one for each year of my life, but they were stolen. I haven't collected things since then.
No pennies in Canada any more. Cash transactions are rounded to the nearest five cents, and nobody ever seems to complain about it.
Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on
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My window fitters discovered a couple of odd coins which seem to have been pushed into the original surroundings or somewhere they accessed during the work. Upstairs in the spare (box) room, a farthing. Downstairs, a decimal halfpence. Smaller and squittier than the farthing. That ceased to be used in 1960, and the village was inaugurated in 1967. Odd.
Posted by Aravis (# 13824) on
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There is a butcher's shop near me that doesn't accept cards, only cash or cheques. They have a very old till that doesn't add amounts; it's just a receptacle for the cash. They add up everything you buy on a scrap of paper. The meat is fantastic quality and locally sourced where possible.
Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on
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Cheques are now hardly ever used down here. Some specific instances use them, but I would have to hunt for my cheque book. I think I know where it is, last used in stamp duty payment on purchase here and in deposit and settlement. That was five years ago.
Cards are used extensively, direct debits for recurring payments and direct deposits. Cheques are about as dated as halfpennies.
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on
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I have just taken a small, heavy box of old coins (pre decimal currency and old 20 and 50 cent coins) to a charity that bundles them up and exchanges them with the Reserve Bank for current coinage, which is then used in work with children. This money was gathered when we cleared out our family home after Dad died.
I use cash for small transactions, taxi fares (where using a card costs $3 extra) and topping up my bus card, but ATM cards for supermarket shopping and other transactions over $20.
I am careful to keep some notes available because the whole card system went down in Christchurch during the 3 major quakes in 2011 and many people were caught out.
Huia
Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on
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As a student I had a holiday job in a school uniform shop. In the busiest periods, we could run out of change, in which case the owners’ son would go round some of the other local small businesses to see if they could help us out.
Surprisingly, the pound shop was not a particularly good source of pound coins.
Posted by Dennis the Menace (# 11833) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
It would wipe out people asking for change on the streets.
They'll all have card readers on their cell phones. Have you ever noticed that people begging for money always seem to have enough for (a) cigarettes and (b) cell phones?
Yes, I think it is amazing!!
Posted by Dennis the Menace (# 11833) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
My window fitters discovered a couple of odd coins which seem to have been pushed into the original surroundings or somewhere they accessed during the work. Upstairs in the spare (box) room, a farthing. Downstairs, a decimal halfpence. Smaller and squittier than the farthing. That ceased to be used in 1960, and the village was inaugurated in 1967. Odd.
A once common practice was to place a coin in a window or door frame when building or doing renovations. Usually with the current.
Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on
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I wonder if they stuck coins in for future finders in the current windows. I will make sure the two are kept together with that information. When I remember where I put them.
Oddly, though, none of the windows were original - they had been timber but were now lousy UPVC - not that the plastic is by nature lousy, but that these particular ones were. Gaps between the window and the frame you could see through! I'd had to use plastic draught excluders until I could get the replacements done.
Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on
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I have in my hand a Ten pound sterling note from the Royal Bank of Scotland. A bit of memory from my trip there in 2008.
My grandpa gave me an 1888 Morgan silver dollar. It's fun to look at it and remember that it was minted before he was born! And now I'm a grandparent, so this coin has existed for six generations of my family.
[better word]
[ 09. February 2016, 17:00: Message edited by: jedijudy ]
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on
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I was in a local charity shop recently when the manager was going through a box of old coins that had been donated. There were Victorian pennies, and thrupenny bits, and sixpences. I'd forgotten how big a half a crown coin was.
And in the bookshop where I work, a few days before that, a couple came up to the desk to ask "What are these numbers on the cover of the paperbacks - 2/6 and 3/6?"
They'd never seen the prices (two shillings and sixpence, or half a crown, and three shillings and sixpence) written down.
Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on
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My grandmother was a collector of coins. We never thought much of it, but her collection of silver dollars and half dollars were the biggest seller at her estate sale. She gave me about ten half dollars when I was a kid, which I still have, and I am starting to wonder if I might be sitting on something that might be worth more than the $5 I thought they were worth.
I'm pretty much cashless these days, but in my earlier days, I was an exact change fiend. I could get a jar full of pennies down to a manageable stack in a few months, simply by leaving the house every day with four pennies and giving exact change, or at least handing over the right number of pennies to ensure that I would only get nickles or bigger back.
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
... I'd forgotten how big a half a crown coin was ...
They were huge, weren't they?
I got half-a-crown from the tooth-fairy* for my first tooth; I must have been a very good little piglet as the going rate at the time was sixpence ...
![[Angel]](graemlins/angel.gif)
* We were on a day-trip to one of the outer islands visiting relatives at the time, and as I wasn't staying overnight they told me to put the tooth in a glass of water. When we were leaving to catch the boat, they gave me the glass with the half-crown in it.
Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on
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What will happen to charity street collections when we no longer use coins? A question I've heard recently. Or buskers. There was a woman playing Scots airs on a fiddle at the entrance to the supermarket today. I gave her a $2 and a $1 because she was playing The Wild Mountain Thyme, but a friend used her card at the checkout and got $3 change for the busker. So many people use their debit card that pickings are slim for buskers,
I've recorded elsewhere that people whose church donations are done by direct credit have taken to putting a coin in the offering so the kids know they're not just being mean.
GG
Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on
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Contactless, especially smart watches. At work (an upmarket supermarket cafe) increasing numbers of people use Apple Pay.
Posted by Ricardus (# 8757) on
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quote:
Originally posted by BroJames:
Me too. Not only is decimal 'new money', but they changed the size of the 5p, 10p and 50p coins in the 1990s, so there's no chance now of anything turning up in current use that has been minted before 1971. Until that change, there was still a faint chance of a much older shilling or florin turning up in your pocket.
When I was at primary school I had a 50p dated 1969. I was enough of a swot to know that this was before decimalisation, so I concluded that it was either an inept forgery or I had discovered a rift in space-time.
(I believe the more prosaic explanation is that 50p pieces were minted in place of ten shilling coins for a few years in preparation for the changeover.)
One thing I like about our money is the relatively large number of 'special' editions of 50p, £1 and £2 coins (e.g. there are £1 coins with national symbols, famous bridges, national flowers etc). Is this widespread among other currencies? Euros don't seem to have anything like it.
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
What will happen to charity street collections when we no longer use coins?
You'll be stopped on a street corner and asked to sign up to giving £20 a month to their charity by direct debit.
This has already been happening for many years. I've no idea what their success rate is but I always refuse.
Posted by Gracious rebel (# 3523) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Ricardus:
When I was at primary school I had a 50p dated 1969. I was enough of a swot to know that this was before decimalisation, so I concluded that it was either an inept forgery or I had discovered a rift in space-time.
(I believe the more prosaic explanation is that 50p pieces were minted in place of ten shilling coins for a few years in preparation for the changeover.)
There were never 10 shilling coins - we had brown 10 shilling notes. And wikipedia explains the 1969 50p coin as follows:
quote:
The 5p and 10p coins were introduced in April 1968 and were the same size, composition, and value as the shilling and two shillings coins in circulation with them. In October 1969 the 50p coin was introduced, with the 10s note withdrawn on 20 November 1970. This reduced the number of new coins that had to be introduced on Decimal Day and meant that the public was already familiar with three of the six new coins. Small booklets were made available containing some or all of the new denominations.
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on
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While Gracious Rebel is perfectly correct, the 1969 50p coin (which caused a lot of controversy when it came in because of its shape) does sound a bit like the apocryphal Roman coin with the date "5 BC" on it.
(It probably had "Minted in PRC" on the back!)
Posted by Eigon (# 4917) on
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I remember being called into the kitchen with my little sister to marvel at the first 50p my mum had got in her change!
Posted by Cathscats (# 17827) on
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Recently in Scotalnd the Clydesdale bank introduced plastic five pound notes. I like them. They feel clean for longer, and have a small transparent panel. But I found that when my teenage son got one he wouldn't spend it because he had heard that they were going for a lot more than £5 on EBay. It took a long time to convince him that this was only true for those with very early serial numbers.
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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Well, brace yourselves. From next year pound coins are going to look like this. And what fun we'll all have trying to use both kinds in vending machines.
(If they remind you of the old threepenny piece, that's not a coincidence.)
Posted by Firenze (# 619) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
Well, brace yourselves. From next year pound coins are going to look like this. And what fun we'll all have trying to use both kinds in vending machines.
(If they remind you of the old threepenny piece, that's not a coincidence.)
It is indeed a burpney thritt. Probably with equivalent purchasing power. Eeh, I remember when you could go to the pictures, have a slap-up meal, half a case of Veuve Cliquot, a Thai foot massage and a tram home and still have change from sixpence.
Posted by Huia (# 3473) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Cathscats:
Recently in Scotalnd the Clydesdale bank introduced plastic five pound notes. I like them. They feel clean for longer, and have a small transparent panel. But I found that when my teenage son got one he wouldn't spend it because he had heard that they were going for a lot more than £5 on EBay. It took a long time to convince him that this was only true for those with very early serial numbers.
We have those. If they go through the wash
don't iron them!
Huia
Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on
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Instant shrinky dinks are the result of ironing.
Posted by Kittyville (# 16106) on
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I now have an irresistible urge to do this.
Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
... From next year pound coins are going to look like this.
I rather like the look of that. I wonder what size/thickness it'll be - £1 size or £2?
Posted by justlooking (# 12079) on
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I put loose change in a vase and every now and then use one of these in a supermarket to turn them into proper money. Half a vaseful is £30-£40. You get a voucher you can spend in the shop. It feels like free money.
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on
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Although the machine takes a percentage ...
Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on
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I'm on the rota for counting the collection money at my church. Just last Sunday we had an old French 5-franc piece in the basket.
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on
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New Francs or old?
Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on
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1978 so I guess old. Is it worth anything, can I cash it in anywhere?
Posted by Uncle Pete (# 10422) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
1978 so I guess old. Is it worth anything, can I cash it in anywhere?
The franc was revalued in 1960. The "new" franc, designated as NF for a few years before reverting to FF remained in circulation until the introduction of the Euro coins and banknotes in 2002. So not old at all.
Posted by Uncle Pete (# 10422) on
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I meant to add that the francs could be exchanged at banks until February, 2012, but after that their only value is numismatic or as a curiosity.
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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There are some francs from that era available on eBay but really, you'd spend more on postage than on the item itself.
Still, you could try eBaying it and seeing if anyone bites.
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